The terminology “marginal gains” first came to my attention following the England Rugby teams success at the 2003 Rugby Union world cup. Following their victory over the dreaded foe Australia the then Head Coach Clive Woodward described how he implemented incremental improvements into the many aspects of a rugby players training but also other aspects of the Rugby world leading to significant improvements on the playing fields.  

A question we could ask ourselves involved in safeguarding, and when I say safeguarding, I do mean across the board be it in a local authority, Police teams or in the world of sport, could we implement the concept of “marginal gains “into the safeguarding arena and if so, what would it look like  

Currently there is a review being led by Josh McAlister into developing a new approach to children’s social care in England, another big initiative from the Government and follows other initiatives legislated by previous administrations that have failed to improve outcomes for significant numbers of children.   

A question to ask is do we need these big interventions, or should we adopt a “marginal gains” philosophy by making 1% improvements in 100 identified areas that Clive Woodward did so efficiently and successfully with his Rugby team.  

The last two weeks we have seen the latest publication from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) reporting into the failings of a local authority over decades, another local authority was found wanting into their response to child sexual exploitation in their area and there were 40 arrests following another investigation into child sexual exploitation, what big initiative made a difference in these cases!  

Coupled with this we have seen a huge focus on criminal exploitation across the country as agencies struggle to deal with the increase in “county lines” cases and an upsurge in serious youth violence, and what worries me is that the focus on these issues detract from the ongoing threat of child sexual exploitation which sadly is still prevalent in so many areas yet it is under reported, have we taken the eye off the ball with regard to CSE as we focus on other areas of exploitation? 

 A question we also  have to ask ourselves is “have we really learnt from the past mistakes”, like most of us I have read numerous amounts of SCR’s and the new rapid reviews and have they made a difference, can we measure any marginal gains and if so can we share them, one of my favourite quotes comes from The Lord Laming from his enquiry into the tragic death of Victoria Climbe      

                                                     “do the small things well”   (2003) 

  His report is littered with huge failings, but he identified that in many instances if staff and agencies had done small things better perhaps the outcome for Victoria could have been different.  

So my challenge to you colleagues is can we use the concept of “marginal gains” to affect change in your organisations, no big initiatives as so many local authorities do say that they are sometimes blighted by the amount of initiatives and interventions that they are expected to embrace and report on! What kind of marginal gains can you improve across your organisation, processes and procedures and can we learn from the world of sport? We are not trying for Rugby world cups or Olympic medals but small changes that could make a diffidence in a child or families lives. 

Are we up for this challenge, I am certainly going to look at what I do with a critical eye and reflect on what marginal gains I can achieve! I will write another blog after the summer holidays to let you know what I have reflected on and the small changes that I have made, so watch this space. 

As always we at the NWG are happy to chat to our colleagues from the world of sport or the wider world of the children’s workforce about any issues to do with this blog or about child exploitation so do please keep in touch, we would be delighted to hear from you and what changes you may have reflected upon or implemented. We are now back in our office after working from home for such a long time so would welcome a call on the old-fashioned telephone or a Teams or Zoom invite.  

Stay safe colleagues and I hope you all manage to get some down time over the remainder of the summer holidays period and please do practice some self-compassion as well. 

Kev Murphy Safeguarding in Spot Lead  NWG Network 

01332 585371 

07339 449045 

[email protected] 

[email protected]